Canadian SME International Trade and Marketing - writings upon readings and continued curiousity
in the realms of cross cultural business. Some of my opinions
are not my own,
but I would fancy to say
nearly all of them
should be credited
to the various authors.
Deming disciple.
I stubbornly persist.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

First of all, Roslyn
Kunin has reported upon the impending labour crisis in British Columbia set to
begin as early as 2016. The basis of this article is sourced from the recent
research output of RUCBC or their BC Labour Market Outlook 2010-2020
and considering that there are only two reports on their website it must be
evidence that RUCBC collaboration in this capacity is fairly quickly assembled
in response to crisis management. It is
obvious that B.C. is further ahead in their awareness of the issue than most of
the rest of Canada for example, where the entire Atlantic Provinces are seen to
lose 30% of their enrolled students and population by as early as 2022. I am not
hearing “boo” from any media or research source here, as if the baby boomers
who are aware of it are silently taking the knowledge with them to their
secured retirements, and leaving the rest of us in what could only be described
as a regional economic and socio-cultural nightmare. Here where all responsible
for policies are managed by elitists and sycophants thus irascible,
intransigent, and nepotistic (and I am being generous) could throw their hands up
in the air in hindsight and say, “we knew nothing, we were unaware, if only we
had known sooner, we could have done something to stop such declines.”

You knew, you were
told, I am not the only one telling you.

GLOOM
FOR BC IS DUSK AND FULL NIGHT FOR THE REST OF THE COUNTRY

Page ten provides grim
evidence of the educated outmigration shifts of many regions and provinces of
Canada in the RUCBC Labour Market Report, including The Maritimes up until 2006. It would be useful if the RUCBC
were extending their labour market projections beyond their own mandate to encompass
the rest of the country up to 2020, as few if any other regional research
associations seem to be up to snuff. Asit appears they have been doing so little other than
massive Motherhouse-like construction projects on old, outdated, non-existent
or even completely missing or perhaps falsified/misrepresented data perhaps aside from
Statistics Canada. This reaffirms a conviction that most provinces of Canada
have worked in statistical blindness and logic vacuums upon scant inter-provincial cooperation or even comparative note taking among their administrative cadres. Until
these kinds of figures appear, which are ominous to suddenly weigh heavily on the provinces, they have rampantly oversupplied skilled workers in the East while others over-employ those workers in
the West without having spent any money to educate them.

THE
MARITIMES: HORSE HAS ALREADY LEFT THE BARN?

Considering that B.C.
has historically and is currently seeing approximately 30% of its employment
needs coming from those educated and employed outside of the province whether
international or national employment candidates, their research of this trend
should similarly extend a comparative percentage beyond their provincial scope.
As is clear from page eleven in the RUCBC Labour Report, the international migration rates have somewhat
declined up to 2012 while inter-provincial migrants have slipped into negative
territory for the first time in recorded history. A great example of national
mismanagement is the oversupply of education majors; what a nefarious pursuit
of academics to ensure and enshrine their own resources at the cost of
misinforming their own students as to the five to ten times oversupply of the
educational market. These academic administrations have for the most part ignored the trends in international education for decades possibly mostly due to the fact that Canadians for
generations in academia have refused to develop the international wing of their
mandate for more than forty years. This is why Canada is losing ground in
educational quality to countries like Australia with double the results in
academic quality rankings and significantly smaller population. This is why its national earnings are so paltry abroad; Canada has severely neglected its commitment to quality education and quality jobs for more than a generation and the results are staggering. The egos of this nation so outweigh its potency in international education, its tragic.

BEGGARING
THY NEIGHBOURS & SUCKING THEM DRY OF THEIR GRADUATES

While British Columbia,
Saskatchewan and Alberta have consistently under-educated their own populations
to undergraduate and PGR levels as several others have oversupplied suitable
candidates nationally it is apparent this will no longer be possible for the
foreseeable future. So can B.C. institutions quickly and easily ramp up their
efforts to produce more provincially educated employment candidates across all
disciplines and skills levels in the next five years to keep up with labour
market demands? It would be useful for RUCBC to examine comparative
international migration competitors to source strategies for that purpose.

ODIOUS
BASIS OF A SOGGY BOTTOM AU/IN INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY

The idea that the
solution is asking more international students to pay more than domestic ones for
their education here and then expect them to take employment outside of the discipline for which they have trained and
at salaries less than their less educated domestic Canadian competitors is at
the root of Canada’s soggy bottom international education strategy. What else
than institutional prejudice and two tiered highly discriminatory hiring
policies can that be described as? Whatever it is, it is odious and requires
significant cleanse in the terms of competitive marketing strategy as it will not
hold water abroad and strikes the underbelly of Canada’s cultural ethnocentrism in its
worst expression of it.

LILY-LIVERED
DFAIT MARKETING MANEUVERS

An example of Canada’s
lily-livered approach to its own international education strategy, which belies
the insignificance it affords to its competitors as easily demonstrated by Mel
Broitman, describing the absence of water at marketing
functions held by DFAIT in Nigeria; recalls the absence and parched, late
appearance of water at Canada Day Festivities at The Governor Generals’ Rideau
Hall Residence in Ottawa in the early 1990s. The best they could come up with
in terms of catering were (hours late) stale sandwiches and a shortage of cups
for ten thousand revellers in record heat.

Korea is another great
example of DFAIT inability to fathom the marketing approaches of even its
primary competitor for undergraduates there, Austrade. Korea is one of Canada’s
largest international education markets and has been so for nearly twenty years
mostly on the sweaty wetbacks of Canadian itinerant teachers. With over 22,000
Canadians in the country the only efforts at cross-institutional networking is
through the Canadian Chamber of Commerce where gala events are three times the
cost of Korea Australia Alumni Association activities which are more numerous.
Canada should already have have a fully implemented cross-institutional alumni
association there in Korea serving its own expats let alone the thousands of
Korean Canadian Alumni but doesn’t. Such an enterprise is long overdue and
needs to be financed and managed by DFAIT but it does not mirroring the
regional and at odds provincial approach to educational networking back home.
Personally, such an approach appears quite witless.

CUT THE BULL: STALE SANDWICHES WILL NO LONGER SUFFICE

Recommendations in the Opportunity
Agenda appear to be in line with Conference Board of
Canada recommendations made nearly a decade ago for the entire nation. However
how many other university associations are publishing similar agendas, how many
other provincial and federal education initiative are being taken to ensure
these roles and requirements are reached? If as it appears, Canada’s
international migration competitors are able to offer better incentives to
employment and immigration than this
article suggests, “immigrants are more likely to have
higher education than other Canadians, but are less likely to find jobs in
their fields and to make an equivalent income” such in built (in bred?) policy
based prejudice approach to immigrant employment across provincial, federal,
institutional and corporate employment
practices will probably not meet minimum demand requirements.

It is one poor
argument, a false one, that immigrants will be willing to sacrifice their
careers for a Canadian citizenship and position. It is false, because the
ability to work in one’s own specialized field and be paid better than
nationals with fewer skills and credentials (and as merit demands it should
be), will be the competitive advantage and primary success factor in
international migration policies across the entire OECD. B.C.’s problem is a
global one and B.C.’s competitors are just as aware as I am that Canada’s
Achilles heel is its lack of respect for international experience and superior
qualifications. It is policy and it’s a cheap and usurious one. When Canada’s
policy makers begin to provide evidence of merit based hiring practices rather
than prejudicial ones, namely giving international work experience and superior
education it’s just due, as Canada should as well, this crisis will diminish
correlative to hiring and training the best people for the jobs regardless of
where they come from if they can provide evidence of superior skills.

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About Me

Seeking excellent quality course design, program or project leadership in international trade research position.
Canadian international trade specialist experienced teaching in South Korea, The UAE and China.
Relocating to: North America, South East Asia or The Middle East where my training and experience will make a positive impact on the organization and its students or collaborators.